From Sporting Lisbon to Tottenham, English-born defender Eric Dier has taken the long road to stardom

Well-grounded and well-travelled, 20-year-old defender has made an immediate
impact on the Premier League, scoring in his first two games

Flying start: Eric Dier celebrates his goal against Queens Park Rangers at White Hart Lane - the defender came through the ranks at Sporting Lisbon after his family moved to Portugal for his mother's jobPhoto: AP

Eric Dier is reminded of an advertising campaign to promote England’s new kit after a World Cup debacle – the 2010 version; not this year’s rank failure. There is Wayne Rooney, flanked by, among others, Theo Walcott and Jack Wilshere. Standing directly behind Rooney in the Umbro shoot is a tall, straight-backed, blond-haired kid – a 16-year-old Dier.

“Umbro asked me to do it because they sponsored me,” Dier explains. “It had nothing to do with England. People made a big deal of it.”

They did make a big deal. It was subsequently claimed that Dier had rejected the English system to learn the game at Sporting Lisbon’s famed academy. Although that was not quite the case there was greater justification in the suggestion that it was wrong that Dier was on the fringes of the Sporting first-team and yet had been overlooked by England.

“I say it – and people can believe me or not – but I wasn’t really that interested in international teams, to be honest,” Dier explains. “When I was younger I wasn’t really bothered whether England were after me or Portugal were after me.”

England knows about Dier now. Not just because he has become an important member of Gareth Southgate’s under-21 squad but because he secured a £4million to Tottenham Hotspur this summer and has made an astonishing, immediate impact.

Two league games, two starts in two different positions (centre-half and right-back), two clean sheets, two victories and, unusually for Dier (who previously scored just once in 18 months with Sporting), two goals. Next up for Tottenham is Liverpool at home for the league’s early leaders.

“I should retire,” Dier jokes. “Obviously with scoring two goals there’s been a lot more focus on me. If I’d played well, kept two clean sheets and hadn’t scored no-one would be saying anything, so I guess there’s more attention because of it but it’s nothing to get too excited about. It’s only two games – I guess the English press love an English player. Or the English love an English player. That’s why I get more attention.”

Dier, now 20, is certainly grounded. A product, perhaps, not just of his family upbringing but of the self-confessed “weird” path he has taken into the Premier League. It all started before Euro 2004 when Dier’s mother, Louise, took a job in Portugal in the run-up to the tournament through a catering company. With Eric aged just seven, the Diers duly moved to the Algarve.

“By the time Euro 2004 was finished everyone was settled in Portugal,” says Dier, who is one of six children. “My brothers and sisters were in school. Everyone was happy. My dad travelled with his work (for the tennis brand Dunlop) so it didn’t really make a difference where he lived. I was at Sporting by then and everyone was enjoying living there so we didn’t see a reason not to stay.”

Dier’s father, Jeremy, is a former tennis professional who represented Britain in the 1970s and 1980s and Eric is the grandson, on his maternal side, of Ted Croker, the former secretary of the Football Association. Dier played for his local school in the Algarve and was recommended by his PE teacher, who used to scout for Sporting, with the family moving to Lisbon.

“It was weird, really strange and it was a really big culture shock with the language and everything but we were young,” Dier says. “In the beginning I was seen as an outsider at Sporting and I didn’t speak the language very well which made it really hard. But once I had learnt the language and they realised I wasn’t going anywhere I didn’t have problems. By the time I was 13 I was settled and I was just like one of them.

“When I moved to the academy and went to a Portuguese school my mum said she was worried I was losing my English because my Portuguese was getting better than my English. My whole life was in Portuguese. I only spoke to my family in English.”

Sporting has an outstanding reputation at developing players – graduates include Cristiano Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Joao Moutinho and Luis Nani. At the club’s campus in Alcochete, south of the river Tagus, images adorn the walls. “They like to remind you!” Dier says. “There are pictures everywhere. Big, big photographs.

“Obviously those are massive names but there are loads of very, very good footballers who have gone through there. That gives you confidence and you trust them with yourself and that was massive for me.”

Dier stood out. He captained each of Sporting’s age-group XIs before breaking into the senior side, aged 19. How did the coaching differ from in England? “Everyone asks me that question and I’m not really sure what to say,” Dier explains. “It was the only thing I knew so I don’t really know if it was better or worse and what was different.”

But it was different. “We played seven-a-side when I was much younger, Dier says. “And you played a 2-3-1 with a goalkeeper. The two defenders – I was one of them – they didn’t work as centre-backs, they worked as full-backs. You would go wide and one would attack at a time and be a big part of attacking.”

Dier was 12 before he played his first 11-a-side match and, unsurprisingly, the players he admired were all ball-playing defenders such as Barcelona’s Gerard Pique. “I just took a massive liking to him,” Dier says. “I also liked Rio Ferdinand, Ledley King, I’m not saying that because he was at Tottenham but I really thought he was a quality defender and was so unlucky with injuries.

There were other England players, too – John Terry, for example. I think any kid would choose to look at one of them more than a traditional centre-back. It’s more likeable, isn’t it?”

Still Dier felt the need to return to England. Three years ago he joined Everton on loan, an experience which toughened him up. “I think I was getting a bit lazy, to be honest,” he says. “I was in that comfort zone. I had been at Sporting since I was a kid. My parents spotted the chance to go to Everton and thought it would be good for me to have a change.

“Going to Liverpool was hard in the beginning because I was 16, 17, on my own and had left Portugal, which was my home. Left my friends and family. So it was another massive culture shock. I always say I went there a boy and came back a man.”

The coaching, also, was different. “It was tough,” Dier says. “In Portugal you are not used to coaches screaming at you! They just sit there and watch. So it toughened me up. I was probably still seen as soft at Everton but it toughened me up.

“But it was always the plan to go back to Sporting, no disrespect to Everton, as I always thought that would end up being the best place for me.”

By then Portugal had come calling, asking him if he wanted to represent them. “I couldn’t have a Portuguese passport as I wasn’t 18 yet but I wasn’t really interested,” Dier says.

Instead he chose England. Not least because, although he enjoyed life in Portugal and had worked his way into the Sporting first-team, he always intended to move back – an opportunity that finally came this summer.

“Everything just fell into place,” Dier explains. “Tottenham were interested and it was either stay at Sporting for a while or move now. Tottenham came along and it was impossible to turn down. It’s a massive step-up. It’s a completely different world, to be honest.”

Dier has been in contact with another Sporting player who recently made the move to the Premier League – Manchester United’s Marcos Rojo.

“I was texting Rojo the other day at United because we were at Sporting together and he said the same things,” Dier says. “It’s a different world and it is in every way. Every game is competitive, every game the stadium is full, home and away. Really competitive games, there are loads of great players: Tottenham has great players, Liverpool, Manchester United, it’s full of superstars.”

Dier hopes he is here to stay. “My way is weird! It’s not like I’ve been here and gone somewhere else. But I don’t see any reason why someone would want to leave here now.”

Eric Dier was speaking at Frederick Knight Sports Centre, where he met students on Tottenham Hotspur Foundation’s Education and Football Development programme.